Agronomic traits, secondary metabolites and element concentrations of Lavandula angustifolia leaves as a response to single or reiterated drought stress: How effective is the previously experienced stress?

Abstract

In nature, plants are constantly challenged by an array of drought episodes, which critically affect the distribution of the plants. The drought episodes might occur recurrently, so the plants endure drought by adjusting and shifting their metabolisms. The impacts of subjecting plants to drought stress have been widely investigated, but reports on how reiterated drought stress affects the plants are limited. The present study was designed to investigate the response of lavender, a reputed medicinal and aromatic plant, against single drought, recovery and reiterated drought stress at greenhouse conditions. In this regard, the experimental design was based on three cycles of 11 days of drought by withholding water, followed by subsequent periods of 6 days of recovery, and then double-stressed and single-stressed periods. As expected, the present findings revealed that single stress decreased the fresh and dry weights of the leaf, stem and root. Reiterated drought stress caused critical reductions in the fresh weight of the leaf, stem and root, while the dry weight of stem and root were not significantly affected. Of the estimated traits, only the dry weight of leaf increased with reiterated drought stress. The mineral status of the leaves was adversely affected with single stress, but the effects of recovery and reiterated stress were not in accordance with the improvement in water contents of the leaf and soil. Regarding essential oil compounds, eucalyptol, camphor and endo-borneol were predominant. Single and reiterated drought stress increased camphor percentage, while recovery and full irrigation decreased the percentage. Endo-borneol was decreased under single stress, but reiterated stress increased the percentage of the compound. Considering the phenolic acids, stressed and non-stressed groups were well discriminated and hence, phenolic acids might be useful as good indicators of the stress response in lavender.

Water deprivation modifies the metabolic profile of lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.) leaves

“…Hence, our third hypothesis has to be rejected, and the plants needed more time to recover. Similar effects were also observed in terpenoids and essential oil composition from other studies on lavender and other Lamiaceae plants species (Khorasaninejad et al 2015;Chrysargyris et al 2016;Kıvrak 2018;Kulak 2020;Szekely-Varga et al 2020;Gorgini Shabankareh et al 2021a;Kumlay et al 2022;Saunier et al 2022;Pokajewicz et al 2023). However, drought memory effects were not observed in Argania spinosa (de la Fuente et al 2023) and a grassland community (Zavalloni et al 2008).…”

“…This is also indicated by the 95% declined 4-hydroxybenzoic acid abundance after re-watering (Figure 3). Similar effects on phenolic compounds were documented in leaf essential oil of water-stressed lavender plants (Chrysargyris et al 2016;Kumlay et al 2022), soybean (Glycine max L.) (Darmanti et al 2018) and various medicinal plants (Albergaria et al 2020). In our study, sugars (particularly RFOs), proline and branched-chain amino acids and aromatic compounds, participating in osmotic adjustment and ROS scavenging, were accumulated upon prolonged WD.…”

Irrigation Practice in Cultivation of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni in Cooler Climates—Case Study in Poland

“…The cooler temperatures and varying precipitation patterns suggest a revaluation of traditional cultivation practices to optimise stevia's growth and yield in this region. One of the key factors in a successful cultivation of herbaceous plants is the irrigation regime, because various plants benefit greatly from the proper water management and lack of water during the cultivation of these plants can result in poor yield and unsatisfactory raw material quality [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Plants grown with an inadequate amount of water are also often characterised with worse organoleptic properties, such as taste and aroma, which is important for potential consumers of these products [11][12][13].…”

“…Plants grown with an inadequate amount of water are also often characterised with worse organoleptic properties, such as taste and aroma, which is important for potential consumers of these products [11][12][13]. Water stress during growth of the plants can also influence the concentration of various elements or bioactive components, such as phenolic acids or vitamins; therefore, it is an important factor in the cultivation of plants, which could potentially be used in the production of food products [10]. During this study, four types of irrigation (or lack thereof) were investigated in Stevia rebaudiana plants grown in Polish climate: watering two times a week, watering one time a week, watering only during drought periods and no watering at all.…”

Evaluation of the impact of marine algae biostimulants and fertilisation program on nutrient uptake, drought tolerance and plants condition as a method of improving potential quality and fertility

“…The highbush blueberry is a species very sensitive to water shortages due to its shallow root system, which penetrates the soil to a depth of 40 cm [16]. Even a short period of water shortage causes a stress reaction in the plant, limiting photosynthesis and inhibiting plant growth [17,18]. The demand for highbush blueberry fruit is still growing and the profits from cultivation encourage growers to increase the cultivated areas of this species [19,20].…”